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The meeting that started the first biotech company, Herbert Boyer

Interviewee: Herbert Boyer.
Herb Boyer talks about the fateful meeting, which led to the establishment of the first biotech company.
(DNAi Location: Manipulation > Production > Players > Herbert Boyer > Meeting with Bob Swanson)

Transcript:

I didn't know what venture capitalist was in those days. And he said he was interested in, in starting a company, he had some money to do so and that's when I got interested, because laboratories always needed money, still do. And he said he'd like to meet with me to explore the possibility of starting a company based on what he had been reading about, so-called recombinant DNA technology. And so I said okay, fine, and if I remember it was late Friday afternoon and he came to my lab around five o'clock, walked in with a suit and tie, you know, and other than the suit and tie he looked like one of my students, he was very young, about twenty-nine at the time I believe.

Image of Herbert Boyer. From lineman on the varsity football team to co-founder of the first biotech company, Boyer has never lacked imagination, drive, or vision. His and Stanley Cohen's recombinant DNA work paved the way for the biotech revolution.